Diamond Select BTTF Time Machine review

I just got my hands on the Diamond Select Toys 1/15th scale Back to the Future time machine. The car has lights and sounds taken directly from the film and is overall a fantastic collectable. The lights are very bright LED type and can be seen very well in any condition. Although made of plastic and painted silver I’m still very impressed by it. In fact I don’t think I would had liked it as much if it were metal like the 1/18th scale SunStar Deloreans… especially what the price would have been. I was able to get this one on sale at Toys R Us for under $20. More after the cut…

The Diamond Select cars are seemingly just up-sized molds of the SunStar cars and large enough to fit most 3 3/4 inch figures. This is both a good and bad thing because although its bigger (good) the vehicles also have the same errors in details (bad). These cars can be found for less than $40 online, and some places even sell them for under $20. In contrast the SunStar versions are smaller, lack the lighting effects, and cost upwards of $50. Overall the toy is awesome and I highly recommend any BTTF fan to pick one up.

Although clearly a DeLorean, there is no mention of the brand on the packaging or vehicle. I understand this is due to a last-minute licensing dispute and it doesn’t really detract from the vehicle.

There are several versions of the toy available, I own the part 1 and Entertainment Earth exclusive part 2 models. The differences between the versions are minor, only one of the many sound effects are unique to each vehicle, the part I has a plutonium chamber while the part II exclusive has Mr. Fusion, the exclusive version also has flip down wheels for “hover mode”. Aside from this the two vehicles are nearly identical out of the box.

The BTTF part 1 time machine was found on sale and because of this I decided to customize it slightly. The exclusive version is all original. If you look closely in some of the pictures you’ll see I have painted some details as well as added the green light up display behind the driver’s seat. I also swapped the dashboard, headlight, and exhaust bulbs for ones more accurate to the screen used car. Pictures and video of the modifications are at the end of this post.